Winners: Fahad Aziz, representative of The Umvoto Foundation, and Busiswa Nomyayi of Indawo Abantu Injongo eKhayelitsha at the #cocreate Blue-Green Cities Design Awards. 

The prize-winning Indawo Abantu Injongo eKhayelitsha initiative has transformed a neglected Khayelitsha street into a beautified,  water-sensitive design feature supported by the local community.

Indawo, Abantu, Injongo eKhayelitsha (Place, People, Purpose) is a community project run by a group of women in the Griffiths Mxenge section of Khayelitsha, Cape Town. The project incorporates waste removal, transformational art and green space creation, forming a water-sensitive rain garden design that protects surface and groundwater systems and promotes community engagement.

This community initiative, supported by The Umvoto Foundation, recently scooped three awards in the inaugural #cocreate Blue-Green Cities Design Awards. It not only won the community-based project category, but also the most valued water-sensitive innovation, and most valued project: water champion. Read more on all the winners here.

These inaugural awards were announced in Cape Town on Thursday 27 October at the conclusion of this year’s #cocreateDESIGN FESTIVAL.

An initiative of the Mission Network of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa, the festival was organised in collaboration with the Craft and Design Institute (CDI). It was curated in partnership with the University of Cape Town’s Future Water Institute, the City of Cape Town and the Institute for Landscape Architecture in South Africa (ILASA). 

Project motivation

Illegally dumped waste, consisting of single use plastics, building rubble, medication, expired food and used sanitary items, has been a continuous issue for Busiswa Nomyayi’s community in Griffiths Mxenge, Khayelitsha. When it rains, sidewalk waste is mobilised and discharged into the stormwater system, impacting waterbodies and the underlying Cape Flats Aquifer (CFA). Busiswa and a group of women in the community formed Indawo, Abantu, Injongo, eKhayelitsha (Place, People, Purpose, Khayelitsha) with the support of The Umvoto Foundation (TUF), to transform and beautify their community.

Clean up operations: The project team undertaking their weekly clean-ups.

Key features

TUF hosted a water stewardship training course on how the earth, water and science interact. Busiswa attended this course and learned about the connection between stormwater and waste impacts. The group began doing regular clean-ups on their street, removing about 60-80 bags of waste each time. Removing building rubble was the biggest challenge as it was difficult to remove and expensive. With TUF’s assistance, the group developed an innovative design to repurpose the rubble to create mosaiced concrete benches. TUF also collaborated with the City of Cape Town to host a training workshop on recycling material collected during clean-ups.

Art is a key design component of this initiative and is an effective way to engage with communities to raise awareness of the importance of the environment and water systems. This was achieved through culturally- appropriate designs of murals and mosaiced benches.

A rain garden was also constructed along the sidewalk where waste was often dumped illegally. This garden consists of colourful indigenous plants and vegetables, with plans to further extend it. TUF and the group are also developing a vegetable garden at the adjacent primary school.

Main benefits

Clean-ups undertaken by Indawo, Abantu, Injongo, eKhayelitsha have resulted in less waste being transferred into water systems, ultimately protecting receiving water bodies (including False Bay) and the underlying aquifer.

The creation of the rain garden has increased the permeability of the sidewalk, resulting in increased aquifer recharge and improved flood retention. The garden vegetation improves stormwater quality by assisting with nutrient assimilation from sources of pollution.

Furthermore, the rain garden has improved the biodiversity of what was a barren street, with sightings of various insects, bees and birds. Brightly coloured murals, benches and garden flowers have brought colour to the street.

Art has been an effective way to educate the community on complex environmental issues – Busiswa notes how one local child made the connection between the birds and insects shown on the murals/mosaics and the presence of birds and insects in the garden, which were not commonly observed before.

Partnerships and collaborations

The project has depended strongly on partnerships from inception. Labour costs for artwork (mosaic benches and murals) were covered by TUF, along with other minor costs. Riyaad Ajouhaar, a building contractor, assisted with recycling the building rubble and constructing benches.

TUF and the group also partnered with local artists such as SethOne and Regan Rubain to design and undertake the art mural and mosaiced benches respectively. In both cases, Busiswa collaborated with these artists to develop the designs. Given a close relationship between Busiswa and the adjacent primary school, the school gave permission for the benches to be built and stored on their property.

The vegetable garden within the school property has received donations such as building material from Riyaad Ajouhaar and plants from architectural consultant Christoph Reinhold.

Generous donations also came from Creative Space Clovelly and React Group in the form of tiles for designing the bench mosaics. Lastly, engagement and collaboration with the City of Cape Town resulted in a recycling training workshop hosted by the City to further upskill the group.

This project is a blueprint for community empowerment and community self-reliance for other parts of Khayelitsha and the rest of South Africa. The initiative advocates bottom-up approaches that illustrate the importance of community-led projects and strong partnerships with a wide range of collaborators, including scientists, engineers and artists.